A so-called electric-powered vehicle such as an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, or a fuel-cell vehicle is mounted with a power storage device made of a secondary battery, a capacitor, or the like, and travels by generating driving force from electric power stored in the relevant power storage device.
An electric vehicle does not have an electric power-generating function configured with an engine and others, and thus it has conventionally been required to store electric power to be used for traveling in the power storage device mounted thereon, with use of electric power of an external power source such as a commercial power source. In addition, as to an electric-powered vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle or a fuel-cell vehicle, which has an electric power-generating mechanism, there has also been proposed a technique of charging the power storage device mounted thereon with use of a commercial power source or the like having high electric power-generating efficiency to thereby achieve higher fuel consumption efficiency. In particular, attention has been focused on a configuration that uses a commercial power source supplied to each household and having a relatively low voltage (e.g. 100 V or 200 V) to charge the power storage device mounted on the electric-powered vehicle.
A location for resupplying fuel (e.g. petrol) for operating an engine is limited to a location such as a specific fueling station, whereas a location for externally charging a power storage device mounted on an electric-powered vehicle is less limited. In particular, if a commercial power source having a relatively low voltage is used for external charging, it becomes possible to externally charge an electric-powered vehicle while parking the vehicle in, for example, a garage of each household.
In the case of externally charging the electric-powered vehicle in each household, a lighting fixture is not always fully equipped, in contrast to the case of resupplying fuel at the fueling station. Accordingly, from the viewpoint of further facilitating an operation of coupling an electric power-feeding unit (a typical example of which is a charging connector) for supplying electric power of the external power source to the electric-powered vehicle at night or the like, there has been disclosed a configuration in which a lighting fixture is provided at the vehicle or at the electric power-feeding unit.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 06-325834 discloses charging connectors for an electric vehicle, which are identified as connectors arranged at the vehicle and at a charger, respectively, and capable of being fitted into each other, a connector housing located at any one of the vehicle and the charger being provided with light-emitting means. Further, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-161898 discloses charging connectors for an electric vehicle, in which a casing body of an electric power-feeding side connector is provided with an illumination chamber having an indicator lamp set therein, and the indicator lamp is configured with a two color-type LED that can emit light of colors different between during standby where the electric power-feeding side connector is connected to a charger, and during energization.
However, a charging port provided at the vehicle, to which the electric power-feeding unit is coupled, is generally provided with an opening/closing lid to prevent intrusion of water and the like into the charging port when external charging is not performed. The charging port is therefore closed with the opening/closing lid before the electric power-feeding unit is coupled thereto. Accordingly, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 06-325834, even if a lamp (light-emitting means) is provided in a housing at the vehicle, there arises a problem in which a vehicle user (user) has difficulties in visually perceiving the position of the charging port when vehicle surroundings are dark.
Therefore, the user has to search for the position of the charging port with the help of light emitted from a charging connector, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-161898, and thus resulting in a problem of causing the user to feel burdensome.